


under the shade

by UzuSphere



Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: 6YL!27, Do not post to another site, F/M, Fem!OC - Freeform, HE, Present Tense, Sakura Tree - Freeform, Short Story, Subtle! Semi-AU, tree spirit
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-12
Updated: 2019-11-12
Packaged: 2021-01-29 05:15:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21404782
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UzuSphere/pseuds/UzuSphere
Summary: Upon returning to his hometown six years later, Tsunayoshi finds himself reminiscing of the moments he had spent under the shade of the large sakura tree in his neighbor's front yard. 6YL!27
Relationships: Sawada Tsunayoshi/OC
Kudos: 7





	under the shade

**I**

* * *

Tsunayoshi is no more than three years old when he first comes across the lone giant sakura tree in his neighbor's front yard. He is in awe and in wonder at its appearance.

He waves and shakes his arms with all the strength his tiny body can muster as he is cradled in his mother's arms.

"Ara ~ ? Tsu-kun, what is the matter?" She asks, slightly baffled by his unusual behavior.

He continues to make grabbing motions towards the tree and that is when she gets it.

She giggles and rubs the top of his head. "That's a sakura tree, Tsu-kun. Its pretty, isn't it?"

He nods rather enthusiastically and claps his hands in delight when a petal lands on his nose.

"Sakuwa~ pwetty ~ !" He cries out in agreement.

Tsunayoshi is four when he first meets the girl with pink hair and weird white colored eyes.

He and his parents first pick up an older man from the airport. He is scared of the stranger at first but slowly comes to accept his presence.

His papa tells him to call the older man his 'grandpa.'

The four of them go to his house where his mama immediately heads to the kitchen to get their dinner started while his papa and grandpa head to the living room to chat.

When Tsuna feels bored, not understanding what his papa and grandpa are chatting about, he heads off to the kitchen to try and get his mother to play with him.

When that fails, he runs outside to get his purple ball and start playing in the garden.

Unfortunately, he is soon confronted by a small dog that escaped from his other neighbor's house. Scared and confused, he tries to run away but falls down during his escape.

The dog quickly runs up to him and is about to pounce on him when a girl blocks its way. Tsuna watches in awe as his savior shoos the dog away thus leading him to safety.

Her sakura pink hair is what catches his attention first, followed by her white colored eyes as she turns around to face him with a smile.

"Are you alright?" She asks gently and approaches him slowly like how someone approaches a scared animal.

He does not respond at first, simply staring at her in awe instead.

"Hello?" She waves her hand in front of his face when she notices this.

He blushes at being caught in the act of staring at her and mutters, "M'fine."

He takes a quick glance at her after saying this, thinking she might not have heard him, but a single look at her face tells him otherwise.

She smiles and pats his head. "That's good."

Her hand is suddenly in front of him. It reminds him of those TV shows where the hero shows up to help the civilian after defending them from the baddies. Tears start to spring forth from the corners of his eyes as he gets up and runs to hug the kind _nee-chan_ around her waist.

He starts bawling even when she tries to comfort him by rubbing his back in small circles.

His cries causes his mama, papa, and grandpa to come out of the house to see what all the fuss is about, but he remains unaware and falls asleep hugging the kind older sister.

He later learns that her name is Himejima Sakura. The niece of their neighbor with the large sakura tree sitting right in their yard.

He somehow finds it fitting that Sakura-neechan lives there.

Tsunayoshi is six when he comes home from school with scraped knees and dirt all over his face and clothes.

He tries opening the door before remembering that no one is at home. His mama was in a meeting with other mamas like her so she told him to stay with Sakura-neechan for the meantime before he left for primary school.

"Yoshi-kun." He hears her voice through the fence immediately. She sounds worried. It somehow warms his heart that someone else cares for him.

"Wait there!" She shouts before hearing her sprint off.

He accepts and decides to wait near the sakura tree that he had often stared at in awe from his own house.

Reaching out to touch the trunk, he feels warmth and acceptance as he closes his eyes. It causes him to start feeling sleepy and he drifts off to oblivion when Sakura-neechan finally comes back with the first-aid kit in her hands.

When he awakens, he finds his head resting on top of her lap as her hands gently comb through his fluffy hair under the shade of the sakura tree. He can feel that his wounds and bruises had already been treated and simply lays there, enjoying her ministrations. She hums a familiar song and he finds himself falling asleep again.

Tsunayoshi is eight and realizes that he has not yet met nor at least seen Sakura-neechan's parents. Even his mother has not yet seen them.

> (Yet how is it that the house is always clean and there is always food available in the fridge?)

He ends up asking her about this in curiosity and she simply smiles and ruffles his hair without answering. This confuses him and just as he is about to point this out, she skillfully pulls his attention with an extraordinary tale about spirits that lurk in the corners of people's visions and the mischief they create.

> (He does not realize until later that she had dodged his question on purpose.)

Tsunayoshi is nine and in fourth grade of primary school when he catches Sakura-neechan staring at him with eyes looking as if they're remembering something nostalgically (he remembers this word because of one of the stories that she had told him in the past).

He wonders why but makes no comment on this.

He knows now that she tends to dodge questions regarding her background or her family.

> (A small voice inside him questions why he can't ask her about this despite knowing her for so long but he quickly snuffs it out.)

He sneakily grips her hand with his own (and he knows that she lets him do so).

Tsunayoshi is ten and in fifth grade when he finally makes a friend whom he can trust. (He has tried making friends before but they were more like acquaintances and the occasional playmate.)

This friend having black hair and slightly tanned skin, and a bright (yet pained) smile on his face.

He affectionately calls him Take-chan because the same voice inside tells him to.

He pretends not to notice when the said boy starts silently crying beside him.

> (Many years later when he asks his rain guardian the reason for his tears, he is told that it had been his mother's nickname for him prior to her death causing him to remember and cry. He quickly apologizes but the swordmaster brushes it off saying that that had been the reason why he ended up opening up to him in the first place.)

In an attempt to distract the boy from crying any further (it was a bit uncomfortable because he did not know how to comfort someone), he tells Take-chan to come with him to visit a special someone.

He leads him to Sakura-neechan's house where the gate is left open and door is unlocked as if she had been expecting them.

He introduces his friend to her and she beams and shows another nostalgic smile that is directed to his friend this time. When she notices him looking at her, she quickly composes herself and spins yet another tale to distract the both of them.

He notices her tactic but lets himself get distracted in the end.

Tsunayoshi is eleven when he begins to notice something amiss regarding the lone sakura tree in his neighbor's yard. Its trunk looks a shade lighter and its leaves lesser in number than usual. He passes it off as his imagination and thinks that it might have been due to the season.

> (But then he later realizes that the sakura tree was very unusual because it remained in bloom regardless of the season so something was very wrong.)
> 
> (He somehow misses the somewhat pale countenance of his pink haired neighbor in the process.)

Tsunayoshi is still eleven when he somehow manages to befriend Hibari Kyoya, the demon prefect of Namimori. (He calls him friend but the older boy thinks otherwise and tends to beat him up when he does so).

When he meets the prefect one day, instead of the usual sparring they do, the older boy makes an odd comment regarding the sakura tree.

"The sakura tree is going to wither soon." He says and quickly leaves to deal with some troublemakers.

The brunet finds himself taken aback and confused. That couldn't be right, could it?

He finds himself observing the tree more but when a year passes without anything happening to its appearance, he decides that his senpai's comment was probably wrong.

He tells this to Hibari and the older boy stares at him as if he's being stupid. The black haired boy huffs and crosses his arms. "Perhaps I was wrong then," he says and then dismisses him.

> (Tsunayoshi regrets many years later for not choosing to believe his cloud guardian's words more.)

Tsunayoshi is thirteen and in first year middle school when he realizes that it has been far too long since he had talked with his pink haired neighbor.

Why was that so?

It wasn't like their houses were so far apart in distance and he wasn't _that _busy.

> (But the tiny voice in him tells him that it probably had something to do with her.)
> 
> (She was the reason why they no longer met up with each other.)
> 
> (She was the reason why he didn't question the absence of her parents.)
> 
> (She was the reason why the sakura tree bloomed regardless of season.)

When he finally moves to confront her in her house, he finds it empty and the giant sakura tree no longer blooming. It had withered just as Hibari-senpai had predicted.

He cries silently in despair at her disappearance inside the empty house.

** _(Where did she go?!)._ **

* * *

**TBC**


End file.
